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Sarah Thanks for reminding me of the positives! I had my personal pity party and I am better now. I saw my RE yesterday and started a new cycle of meds. So DH and I are determined to make it happen. We both want this so badly. I am fortunate enough to have my health insurance pick up the majority of the bills, which is rare, so I know how frustrating it must be for you to have to wait to start again. I had my tubes checked last August. That procedure was expensive for me also. I had to pay for that. I had many positives from our attempts too. I seem to handle all the meds and hormones very well. I guess my body responds average with the meds as I have never had an overstimulation. My RE actually increased my doses for the 3rd time. I really do not stress much over any of this and I usually do not feel overly confident that it worked. This past cycle was different because I was late and my cycles are just about clockwork EVERY 28 days. So we had much more hope this time around.

Sarah, you are very couragous for making this journey on your own. I hope you have lots of support from family and friends. You are a very brave lady.

I'm so glad you are starting a new cycle Marcie. I think the worst thing thing about betting a BFP for me was the fact that I didn't know when I would be able to try again. I am thinking about possibly starting earlier than March/April as I'm getting impatient already. I see that you've had your 4 cycles quite close together. Were your clinic Ok with that? Did they say anything about the having medicated cycles so close together?
Thanks for saying that I am brave, I don't feel it sometimes, I've only been through one cycle and it's been hard and taken it's toll on me already. I've never felt like giving up though, I guess that's what gives us our strength the fact that we want this more than anything and nothing will stop us.
Sending lots of to everyone for the start of 2012.

Sarah my RE has not shared any concerns of having my IUI cycles month after month. I have read that the Clomid pills that I take for days 3 through 7 of my cycle can cause ovarian cysts. I keep that in mind and push and prod regularly and pay extra attention to any discomfort so I can talk to the doc if needed. But I have an U/S on day 3 and again on day 12 and if the egg(s) are not ready I have yet another on on day 14 so he keeps rather good track of what my ovaries look like. I certainly will not be bashful by the time I get my BFP... hahaha.

Well ladies. It def was a bfn. Had a difficult time over past few weeks as u all will have. I had first ivf appt yesterday. Waiting time a year. They took my amh. Arranged a time for dh SA and a return appt for results and scan. Oh hum. We will all get there ladies. Hope 2012 is better for us all. Xxx

Hi everyone! This has been a busy busy new year. How is everyone doing? Gizzi I am sorry this route has not worked for you. I certainly hope that IVF gives you your miracle. FairyDust glad to see you back. Your new IUI cycle will begin before you know it! Sarah how are you holding up? Have you decided when you will begin your next round? I had my IUI on the 11th and 12th and just had my post Hcg shot on the 16th. So I am officially on the 2WW again. Test day is the 30th if I make it that far before AF arrives. We also learned that DH's counts are actually all over the charts. Some have been super counts and others have benn just barely enough and RE said that could attribute to our infertility. He still says we are on track since IUI would be what he would suggest for that too.

Hiya everyone haven't been on much recently as needed a bit of a break after last cycle and then I was really ill with norovirus and then my grandad died but am now ready to tackle it all again.

Marcie - how is this cycle going? I've got everything crossed for you - we so need a success story on here.
Princess Rebekah - Hi, I hope this cycle is successful for you and your AF starts soon. I'm wondering how many goes to give IUI before I move onto IVF. The clinic suggest 3 but I may move on if this next one doesn't work.

The feedback the nurse gave me from my review meeting was that they were very pleased with my response and they won't change anything next cycle. The only thing is they said I might want to change donor as the donor I used last time had no proven fertility. So I am currently looking at the list again to find one which has. It's a bit sad as i liked the last one a lot but I can't get out of my mind that that might be the problem. Also booking in for Hycosy soon to check all that's OK - just another thing that is on my mind as a possible problem.

Have a nurse planning appt on 16th Feb and will prob start soon after then all being well. Prob March/April. I would love to do it all earlier but am faced with 2 probs - 1 is cost - it's £1650 per cycle (£600 for donor sperm and £180 meds) so I have to save and the 2nd prob is time off work - they have been really good but I can't push it. I'm a teacher so I can't book time off, I just have to rely on their goodwill to let me have the time off.

Anyway, will have this cycle then think again about when to start IVF. I keep thinking it's only 20% chance each time so give it chance but then for IVF it's 37% at my clinic so it's hard to know what's for the best.

Good luck to everyone esp those that have already moved to IVF - I'm sure we'll all end the year either with bumps or babies

Hey Ladies.... I thought I'd pop in and see how your all doing, and obviously hoping to see some good news
Gizzi, I'm so sorry that you didn't get the result we were all hoping for. that 2012 is a much better year and that the waiting time flies by for you x
Marcie, Good luck hunni...really hoping that this time is the winning ticket for you x
Princess & Fairydust, I am hoping that this is a good cycle for you both too x
Scarlett, I'm sorry you sound like you've been having a rather rubbish time. Hopefully all of the dirt is out of the way for you to have a diamond of a year.
AFM...
We looked into me becoming an egg sharer but it turns out that I don't have enough eggs to share, my consult wants me to keep them for myself. So although the cost is higher, I will be trying at the earliest opportunity. I have initial IVF consult on 1st Feb, and hopefully they'll squeeze me on to my Feb cycle. We only can afford to do this so quickly due to the kindness of some family members, so hopefully this will work, or at least us get a few snow babies for us to be able to try with which we can stretch to.
I'll nip in from time to time to see how your all doing. You were fantastic support for me, and I honestly can't thank you enough x
Blue x

I was on (and will be again next time) 0.3ml suprecur from day of baseline scan, 75iu menopur every other day (5 doses in all) and then 250g ovitelle as trigger and twice more on days 3 and 7 after insemination. Thought they might reduce it as I produced 4 large follicles and nearly had to have aspiration but they are keeping it the same.

Hi Ladies! Wow lots of activity since my last post. Great to hear from everyone! Thanks for all the wishes of luck from everyone. But AF arrived this morning. I got past my sadness from yet another failed attempt. I picked myself up and called the RE and I will give it another go for Feb. I do not want to take a break between cycles since I will be 40 in a few short months and my time is running out. DH and I do not want to do IVF yet. He is not comfortable with that procedure yet. So I just have to hope for the best.

Princess Rebekah did AF arrive for you yet? I think they will keep my meds the same this month too. I did 150mg of Clomid for 5 days and then 4 days of Follistim 150. Then Novarelle 10,000IU for trigger on CD 13 and then 5000IU again 4 days post IUI. My RE also does 2 IUI's on CD's 14 and 15. He said I am not a big egg producer. Last month I had 2 and the month before only 1.

You're exactly right Rene, good memory! It's on monday, 9.30am. Hopefully something will have happened! 5 days worth of menopur must do something! lol. In an ideal world I would love to eventually have two dominant follies, but any on this cycle will do me!

It has been rather quiet of late. Not sure but I think some of the ladies are taking a small break. Marcie (where are you?) is doing a cycle this month again, though. She was going for her day 3 scan on Saturday past so should be a cycle buddy for you...

Hi Rebekah and Renee. I am here. I have been checking on everyone daily too, I agree with Renee it appears many are taking a break. I go for my scan on Monday too. I will find out how many follies and how big they are. I think there will only be 1 possibly 2. I took my 5 days of Clomid and started my injections tonight. RE said on Saturday that there did not look to be many potential follicles. My IUI's will probably be Tues and Wed. At least that is how it has worked the last 2 months. Rebekah looks like we will be cycling together.

My follies over the last few months have been pretty consistant between 15 and 18 in size and the first successful IUI cycle there were 3 of them the second time there were 2 the third just 1 and this past time there were 2 at 21 and 22 in size. I think they were bigger because the RE increased my meds. Although I have noticed that my lining thickness has only been ranging from 5 to 7 and they like for it to be at an 8 or better. I too get a bit achey in the lower abdomen. It does remind me of what it feels like when AF arrives. Renee I agree with you in that I think that means they are growing. I wish you the best of luck tomorrow!

Thanks Hun I'm quite nervous about tomorrow! They're only happy for me to go ahead if I have a max of 2 follicles as they don't want me having multiples!! I don't really want a reduction or to convert to ivf yet.

Just did my 5th dose of menopur so that's good, went fine again! How much are they meant to grow in 5 doses? X

Had my scan this morning - Lining is 6.7mm and my clinic (along with european clinics) like the lining to be over 6mm, but ideally over 7! So for exactly a week from starting AF thats good I think and Amanda was happy with it.

I have two dominant follies, with a third very close behind. One is 10.3x10.1 ish, one is 10.1x 9.6 ish (cant remember the exact size but its only going to be 0.1 or 0.2 off) and the one thats close is about 9x8mm. The others are about 5/6/7mm at most.

Hiya
I know that it was posted somewhere at some point. Unfortunately I know of cases where there were 3 follies with a BFN and I know of cases of 1 follie with a BFP (me being one of the latter as I only had 1 follie on 4 of my cycles and only once had 2)
I'll have a look and see if I can find any stats for you...

I seem to be following you closely this cycle. I was surprised that I too have 3 follies. One is 11 and the other 2 are 14. My lining is at 7MM. RE says all are too small as of yet so I also go back Wednesday unless my ovulation predictor surges in the morning. If that happens I will go back tomorrow. I had 3 follies on my IUI in November. Still had a BFN obviously, and DH's count that cycle was 69mil for first day IUI and 27mil for the second IUI day. So even with 97mil swimmers I got a BFN... It made me super nervous though thinking about multiples. I have been really comfortable with the 1 or 2 follies I have gotten since then. So the nerves may be a bit on edge this cycle too with 3 again. Maybe that one at 11 will not get big enough...I will be happy with whatever God gives us, but only 1 is my goal.

Thanks for posting the link Rene. My clinic is quite a new clinic but theyve just published IVF success rates for the year (a whopping 67% for pregnancies following ivf!!) so i wonder if i email or ring them theyll have some kind of iui stats too? What do you reckon?

Sounds like were really similar marcie! How strange! And our scans are both on wednesday! What does your clinic like your lining to be? x

Hi Rebecca
Thank you for contacting CRGW. Success rates for IUI are pretty much the same at all clinics in the UK at around 15%. This is because unlike IVF and ICSI, there really isn’t much skill involved in IUI in that we simply have to prepare a sperm sample (get the best sperm out of the sample) and place that into your uterus at the right time. As such (unlike with IVF/ICSI) mother nature still has a fair bit to do.
Of course some women come in and have one cycle of IUI and get pregnant straight way on the first attempt but statistically if I had 100 women of all ages and did 100 IUI’s I would reasonable expect 15 live births.
The things that increase your chances with IUI are if you are young / if there are minor sperm problems / if you have a hostile cervix (we can’t actually test to check for that).
I hope that helps.

Hi, glad you all have lots of great follies growing I had 4 dominant follies during my first IUI in December. They let me go ahead in the end after much deliberation (although there was lots of talk of possible selective reduction). The consultant mainly let me go ahead as the 2 two slightly smaller follies released while we were scanning my ovaries (amazing!!!) and the two bigger about 23mm and 24mm were still intact and he didn't want to aspirate those ones as they gave me my best chance. The consultant did say it raised my success chances slightly (about 2-3%) - maybe not as much as you may think (do be honest I really got my hopes up massively due to 4 follies and that made the BFN even harder so try not to think about your odds based on number of follies). Obviously it was not successful but I am pleased I responded so well to the low dose of drugs, although next time 2 follies will be plenty thank you!
My clinic has a 20% success rate - the consultant put my chances slightly higher than this as the reason I am having fertility treatment is not that I have any problems but that I am single. I understand the average is around 15-20% for people in their 20s and 30s. I still think I'm best off having another couple of IUI cycles with those odds as the IVF is 37% success rate so not massively higher considering the difference in cost (obviously I pay).
Good luck - we need some more success on this thread

Had my scan this morning. Looks like two dominant follicles now (i think she missed the third) the biggest one being about 18x14. My lining is 10.2.

Theyve kept me on the same dose of menopur and are re scanning me friday with a view to IUI on monday. Does this sound right to you? Im going out my mind thinking my follicles will be over mature by then! Especially as im still on the same higher dose of menopur. Im honestly feeling awful and nervous about it. It was a different lady who scanned me today who ive never seen before and im just going into overdrive worrying about it. She said they wont be too mature but I just dont know considering theyve grown so much such monday already on the 75unit dose of menopur.

Rebekah, I thought exactly the same when they gave me my second scan and saw three dominant follies. I'd had 4 doses of 75unit menopur and i still had one to go, I thought they would say don't take it but the nurse said I couldn't stop now even thought 3 was the limit. Neither would they bring forward insem. I didn't understand as I was already at the max number of follies and that was the Weds with insemination planned for the following Mon. As I put in last post I had 4 dominant in the end and about another 3 borderline at 16mm. They had the forms ready for me to sign for sedation to have an aspiration at my insem so they knew what was happening.

I just had to trust that they were giving me the right dose of meds. In the end I guess I'd rather too many than poor response (and I have low AMH so it is a worry) but I will ask at my planning appointment for my next cycle which is next week. At my review meeting they said they will keep me on the same dose at it was already the lowest dose they recommend. So I will ask all the questions next week.

Im glad im not the only one who gets worked up about it! Im not so worried about having 3 follicles as I think that will give me a slightly better chance, even although its tiny. Im just worried that theyll keep growing and get over 24mm so then become over mature. I dont think 75 is the lowest dose you can have, ive had 35 and 50 before starting 75! Unless you dont respond too well and a higher dose is better for you? Let us know what they say with your follow up. And you are right, I think im just going to have to trust them..

If they tell me not to have a dose of menopur friday night, and do my trigger saturday night, they wont grow anymore friday will they?

Well I ended up with 2 dominant follies. 1 at 18 the other at 22 and my lining is at 11, and they like that to be at 8 or better. They gave me the trigger shot yesterday and they set up my IUI for today and again tomorrow . Rebekah I wish you the best! If you have 3 and the biggest is 18 they probably just want a couple days to get the other one up to where it needs to be.

Hi, All
How are you lovely ladies doing today?
Hope your insem went smoothly, Marcie...
Becky - saw your post about your scan. Fingers crossed for Monday...
Sarah - you really remind me of myself 6 years ago. I went through solo donor treatment at the age of 35 too and my son was born a touch over 2 months before my 36th. The only difference with us is that I had real trouble growing follies.
Really hope that all of you get your BFP's really soon...